Conservatives: Divided or United?

I reached a personal goal this week. Not exactly the way I wanted to reach it, but I reached it nonetheless. More on that in a moment.

This week, as I was hanging out HotAir (my third favorite Conservative website after Kingsjester’s Blog and Bulldog Pundit), I noticed something:

Conservative Americans are divided and yet, united, at the same time.

We’re divided by 2 things.

1. Definition – There are Americans out there identifying themselves as Conservatives, who are as far from being a Conservative, as President Barack Hussein Obama is from being a Southern Baptist.

Now, some of them believe if you only agree ideologically with one of the three criteria President Ronald Reagan presented as the three-legged stool of Conservatism (Fiscal, Social, and National Defense), then you’re a Conservative.

These folks proclaim themselves Fiscal Conservatives. In reality, they are either Moderates or Liberals.

From behind the anonymity of a computer screen, these self-righteous “Conservatives” have labeled Reagan Conservatives “True” Conservatives, meaning it as the ultimate derision, brought about by an over-estimation of their own intellect and political astuteness.

What completely blows their minds, is when you confront them with the fact, per Gallup, that 75% of Americans proclaim Christianity, and 92% of Americans believe in God, because, it turns out, that a lot of these “Fiscal” Conservatives actually seem to have something in common with Karl Marx: They view religion as “the opiate of the masses”, something which is beneath their gargantuan intellects.

They are a bitter bunch, as a whole.

2. Conservatives are divided by geographical region. A lot of these before-mentioned “Fiscal” Conservatives seem to live up in the Northeast or out West.

Gallup.com has released a survey ranking the states as to how Conservative they are:

Mississippi remains the most conservative state in the union, and, along with Utah, Wyoming, and Alabama, is one of four states with 50% or more of its population identifying as conservative. At the other end of the ideological spectrum, 40% District of Columbia residents and 30% of Massachusetts residents identify as liberal; all other states have a liberal population of 26% or less.

As has been the case in recent years, Americans overall are significantly more likely to identify as conservative than as liberal. Forty percent of more than 218,000 adults 18 and older interviewed in Gallup tracking in 2011 said they were conservative, 36% were moderate, and 21% liberal. Only in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts did liberals outnumber conservatives.

Politics in America today varies widely across the states and regions of the country, and ideology is no exception. Mississippi and Massachusetts are the two states that provide the most extreme contrast, with 53% of Mississippians identifying as conservative and 11% identifying as liberal, while 29% of Massachusetts residents are conservative and 30% are liberal.

More generally, the 10 most conservative states in 2011 were in the South (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee), the Midwest (Oklahoma and Nebraska), and the West (Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho). None were on the East or West Coast.

By contrast, all of the 11 most liberal states in 2011 were coastal — the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut in the East, and Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and California in the West.

…America remains a conservative nation, at least as measured by the ideological labels Americans choose to use to identify themselves. Residents of all states of the union except for Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are more likely to identify as conservative than as liberal, and in every state except D.C., residents are also more likely to say they are moderate than liberal. The general distribution of ideology across the states follows traditional red-blue distinctions, with liberals most highly represented on the East and West Coasts, while conservatives dominate in Southern, Midwestern, and Western states.

So, how are Conservatives united?

We all want Barack Hussein Obama to become an ex-president as soon as possible. We share a common bond: We are the American Majority:

Political ideology in the U.S. held steady in 2011, with 40% of Americans continuing to describe their views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This marks the third straight year that conservatives have outnumbered moderates, after more than a decade in which moderates mainly tied or outnumbered conservatives.

The percentage of Americans calling themselves “moderate” has gradually diminished in the U.S. since it was 43% in 1992. That is the year Gallup started routinely measuring ideology with the current question. It fell to 39% in 2002 and has been 35% since 2010. At the same time, the country became more politically polarized, with the percentages of Americans calling themselves either “conservative” or “liberal” each increasing.

Gallup measures political ideology by asking Americans to say whether their political views are very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, or very liberal. Relatively few Americans identify with either extreme on this scale, although 2 in 10 Republicans self-identify as very conservative — double the proportion of Democrats calling themselves very liberal.

Hanging out on the Internet can cause one to become burned-out and extremely depressed. There are a lot of nattering nimrods of negativity out there, claiming to fly the banner of Conservatism.

Just as you do in your real life, spend your cyber life hanging out with people who lift you up.

If Conservatives stick to Conservative principles, lift each other up, and keep our eyes on the prize, 2012 is going to be a great year.

3 Responses to Conservatives: Divided or United?

When I was growing up I knew only one manipulator, only one user. Then I went to college and I experienced a whole new world of manipulators and users and a new group I called wanna bees. There were also the scam operators, the opportunists and the serious womanizers. All of this I experienced within the Greek system of my university. During these years and for a good many years after I married I thought they were the ones to be “like” and that I had been blind to this. I went around with these people and was constantly ambushed and taken advantage of as I was not like them at all and it made me vulnerable to their attacks. They could spot me in a minute. At some point I realized that I was what I was and that it was good and they were simply living a superficial, self gratifying life, much as we see in politics today.
I grew up with tradition and patriotic loyalty to my country as a whole. I grew up with national sovereignty. I grew up with “on the surface” Christianity. Church was every Sunday, but not the center of our lives. Now the Trinity is the center of my life.
Who knows what most of these politicians stand for. Oromney has not told us. He is a manipulator and a scam artist. Santorum is an opportunist from the word go. Gingrich has come to the Lord Jesus and I honestly believe he has lost his arrogance and means to save the country for the people, not for himself.
Our country has been infiltrated with extreme liberals and the Communist Party of America. They have worked hard over the past 40 years to infect our country with decadence of many kinds. This has eaten at the core of our Americanism and thus the decline. So I agree that there are different degrees of conservatism. None of which can successfully unite with the others on a true level. I am a “true” conservative and I have distaste for extremism and for dyed in the wool moderates. Who would ever want to be a moderate person. True conservatives live with the facts and with passion in their lives and for their country. Moderates are the politically correct ones that have allowed this country to decline because of their non action.
But, I disagree vehemently with these conservatives that say they will not vote for Oromney. I will have to put a postem note by the door to remind me, but I will vote.
We must unite against Obama and communism. People won’t say the word. I’ve seen communism, I will never forget it or the people. Obama is leading us down the trail.
However, Oromney refuses kosher meals to our Jewish elderly citizens, Oromney mandated birth control to all in Romneycare, including the Catholics. All of this protested and he turned a blind eye to the people of Mass. He claims to be a great businessman= all he has done is manipulate and scam. He has brokered businesses in order to make millions for himself. It is clever and it is good for his family and it’s legal. He claims to be a conservative. That is a slap in my face. He cannot speak conservative because he is not conservative. He is a Mass. liberal. The one time he had his chance to govern, he bombed out. Taxes went up, fees were created, healthcare went down,and he erased his hard drives when he left office. Sounds like Obama to me. Leftist tactics.
On the other hand Newt has a great record regardless of the untrue smears 65 to 1 ads.
So, I will continue to fight to nominate Newt and I will fight to the end for my country. And if , in the end,Oromney is the nominee, I will vote against communism.
Forgive me, as I get carried away. Your articles are thought provoking and exciting.

If Rick Santorum is still on the ballot – I will cast my vote for Rick. After that, it’s Newt. However, come the end of the day – I will vote for the most Conservative member available. Come November – my attitude will be – “ANYONE BUTT NOBAMA”. If the vote goes to Romney – then Romney will get my vote.

And 4 years from now – if our candidate does not do what we want him to do – we can primary him. But for now – it’s anyone butt Nobama.